Forced chemical mixing at Cu-Nb interfaces under severe plastic deformation

Forced chemical mixing during severe plastic deformation was investigated at Cu-Nb face-centered-cubic (fcc)/body-centered-cubic (bcc) interfaces using molecular-dynamics simulations. Three Cu-Nb interfaces were considered, with either Kurdjumov-Sachs or Nishiyama-Wassermann orientation relationship (OR) between fcc and bcc phases. Forced mixing of a spherical bcc-Nb precipitate in fcc-Cu was also studied for comparison. Deformation was imposed by shape-preserving cycles using two different modes, biaxial compression and biplanar shearing to investigate the effects of strain path. For biplanar shear, the chemical mixing rate is strongly dependent on structure of the interface, with the Kurdjumov-Sachs OR and a (111) _Cu||(110) _Nb habit plane being particularly resistant to mixing. During compression, no such dependence was found. Influences of interface diffuseness and roughness on stability were also investigated. The simulations show the interface mixing is inversely related to interface shear strength during shear deformation, but dominated by dislocation-glide through the Cu phase and subsequent absorption at Cu-Nb interfaces during compression deformation.